Contextual safeguarding against harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation: a narrative review of Australian public inquiries into residential care

In Australia, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse revealed the pervasiveness of harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation in contemporary residential care, as well as the profound impacts these have had on victim-survivors. Other public inquiries in Australia also demonstrated that children and young people in residential care are particularly vulnerable to being sexually harmed by other children and young people with whom they co-resided, or to being sexually exploited by adults in the community. Using a contextual safeguarding lens, this narrative review aimed to address the question, “what contextual factors within residential care systems place children and young people at risk of harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation?” Public inquiry reports published between 2005 and 2024 were retrieved through systematic search results across three data sources: an academic database, an online repository for non-government reports and the websites of Commissioners for Children and Young People across the Australian states and territories. In total, 17 reports were included in the review, and four contextual factors were synthesised through thematic analysis: (a) inappropriate placement matching; (b) ill-equipped workforce; (c) fractured reporting systems; and (d) disempowering practices. These four contextual factors highlight the challenge of implementing inquiry recommendations without first acknowledging that harmful sexual behaviour and child sexual exploitation are forms of social harm partly driven by systemic inadequacy. This underscores the need for a shift in perspective, from focusing solely on individual risks to improving the policy and practice contexts that shape the experiences of children and young people in residential care.